( Spanish) — The Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Tuesday required the State of Nicaragua to release “without delay” 45 people identified by non-governmental organizations as “political prisoners”, who are being held in eight penal centers in the country.
The president of the Inter-American Court, Ricardo Pérez Manrique, read in a virtual conference the resolution unanimously approved by the court, which accepts protection measures previously requested by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).
“The Court verifies that in this matter, the conditions in which the 45 detainees find themselves show the extreme seriousness and urgency of the materialization of risks to health, integrity and life, due to the precarious conditions of detention, their state of health, the lack of access to medicines, the lack of adequate food, and the acts of harassment and threats suffered,” said Pérez Manrique.
The Inter-American Court also requested that the State “adopt measures to effectively protect the life, integrity and personal liberty of the family units” of the detainees, and that it “immediately adopt measures to protect life, access to health, integrity and personal liberty of detainees”.
In its resolution, the Court included the cases of opponents Yubrank Miguel Suazo, Yoel Ibzán Sandino, José Alejandro Quintanilla, Irving Isidro Larios, Roger Abel Reyes, José Antonio Peraza and Russia Evelyn Pinto.
The Government of Nicaragua has not officially reacted to this latest resolution of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. is trying to get a reaction on the issue.
The government of Daniel Ortega has not complied with previous resolutions, arguing that the country is governed by its Constitution and its legal system, which establishes sanctions for those who try to violate national sovereignty. The Court recalls in its preamble that Nicaragua ratified the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights in 1979, and that in 1991 it recognized the contentious jurisdiction of the Court.
Nicaragua expelled in April the representation of the Organization of American States (OAS) and then announced that it would withdraw from the hemispheric organization. Both the Court and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are part of the OAS system.
In June, the Inter-American Court demanded the immediate release of 9 government opponents, including the president and vice president of the Superior Council of Private Enterprise (Cosep), Michael Edwing Healy Lacayo and Álvaro Vargas Duarte, and peasant leaders Medardo Mairena Sequeira, former candidate to the presidency, and Pedro Joaquín Mena Amador.
The Court issued other previous resolutions in favor of other detained opponents, such as former presidential candidates Cristiana Chamorro Barrios and Félix Maradiaga.